takes two parameters, an OID x and an integer y, and returns "true" with
probability 1/y (the OID argument is ignored). This can be useful -- for
example, it can be used to select a random sampling of the rows in a
table (which is what the "random" regression test uses it for).
This patch removes that function, because it was old and messy. The old
function had the following problems:
- it was undocumented
- it was poorly named
- it was designed to workaround an optimizer bug that no longer exists
(the OID argument is to ensure that the optimizer won't optimize away
calls to the function; AFAIK marking the function as 'volatile' suffices
nowadays)
- it used a different random-number generation technique than the other
PSRNG-related functions in the backend do (it called random() like they
do, but it had its own logic for setting a set and deciding when to
reseed the RNG).
Ok, this patch removes oidrand(), oidsrand(), and userfntest(), and
improves the SGML docs a little bit (un-commenting the setseed()
documentation).
Neil Conway
<entry><function>sign</function>(<type>dp</type> or <type>numeric</type>)</entry>
<entry>(same as input)</entry>
@ -955,7 +956,8 @@ PostgreSQL documentation
<entry><function>substring</function>(<parameter>string</parameter> from <replaceable>pattern</replaceable> for <replaceable>escape</replaceable>)</entry>
Bruce Momjian
23 years ago